Minecraft: Journey to the Ancient City/2CHP
Chapter 8: Lisa
Switching to Lisa’s POV, she, Opal, and Braun are now in the Nether, overlooking a cliff over a pool of lava. Opal snaps at Lisa, wondering why she is in the Nether, and she says that she is because she wanted to handle being here, adding that she had Braun with her the whole time. Opal then accuses him of bringing Lisa to the portal, but she admits that he didn’t and that she told him that she wanted to do this. Opal asks why, and Lisa says that heroes and adventurers shouldn’t sit around and wait for her to do something, adding that she and Braun left to mind some obsidian and make sure that no more zombified piglins were coming through the portal. Opal snaps, wondering why Lisa would do such a thing. Braun then cuts in and says that heroes and Lisa were very careful, adding that they were patrolling the edges of the woods, and that the portal was set to be destroyed when they were spotted. Opal then asks why they went into the Nether when they saw her, and Lisa reiterates that they were being careful, adding that the situation that they are in right now is perfect for the adventure that they would be going on. Opal immediately objects, but Lisa says that the adventure would be going back to the ancient city to retrieve the items that she lost, adding that Braun had escaped from the warden that scared her. Braun concurs that he does know some things as Opal angrily asks him if this was his idea. He says that it wasn’t before Lisa says that it was her whole idea. Opal then angrily turns around to head back through the portal, but Lisa refuses to do so, wanting to get some more adventuring practice from Braun so she could go down to the ancient city herself or with Braun, making his mouth drop open. Lisa then begins walking away from the portal before Opal shouts at her to wait, adding that she doesn’t know how to stay safe in the Nether. Lisa shrugs off that remark and says that she knows how to because she has her stories and her aunt’s stories, wanting to kill off some blazes to get to the End to fight the ender dragon, but Opal says that she already killed the ender dragon. Lisa then admits that she will not go the ancient city until she attempts something. Just then a ghast appears, but Braun kills it quickly with arrows, making it drop ghast tears. Opal then says to Lisa that she would’ve been killed had she not been here, and Lisa agrees that she needs to be here with her. Opal then concedes, adding that they will need a few more ghast tears before going back through the portal, with Braun adding that he will follow them where they lead.
Chapter 9: Opal
Switching to Opal’s POV, she, Lisa, and Braun spend the majority of their time in the Nether, finding clusters of ancient debris and getting some more ghast tears. Eventually, the three make it back through the portal and head back to Opal’s house, barely making it through dinner before they all fall asleep. Opal is once again woken up from her nightmare of being in the ancient city, so she decides to get up early to brew some potions. Braun wakes up as well, still in his pajamas, and offer to help her with brewing, but she instead leads him to a room with books and a few brewing stands. Braun eventually sits down and starts reading a book, fidgeting by tapping his foot on the floor, and soon speaks up about the blaze rods needed for the end portal, mentioning them from the book is reading. He then suggests re-summoning the ender dragon, but Opal quickly shoots down that idea despite her promising Lisa that they’d go to the End, adding that she would still go there, but just not fight the ender dragon. Braun responds by thinking that Opal is making brewing and adventuring sound mundane to him, and she says that she loves the mundane parts because it involves preparation and planning. Braun then says that adventuring to him is more like storytelling and excitement, and the two have a brief discussion about what adventuring is to them, with Braun saying that adventuring excites him, while Opal says that adventurers would need to have each other’s backs.
Chapter 10: Lisa
Switching to Lisa’s POV, she, Opal, and Braun do make it to the End a few days later, with Lisa believing that Opal killed the ender dragon on purpose, as she herself had spent the past few days preparing by stocking on armor and potions. She wonders if going to the End was a waste of time, and Opal says that it isn’t as Braun reminds Lisa to avert their eyes from endermen. Opal notices an end gateway up ahead, and the three use their ender pearls to go through it to get to the outer islands, and they soon find an end city with and end ship docked at its side. The three then talk about shulkers, knowing to avoid getting hit by their bullets as it will cause them to levitate, and Opal then tosses Lisa and Braun potions of Regeneration, telling them to only drink it if they get hit by a shulker bullet, as it would be a long fall if they did get hit.
Chapter 11: Opal
Switching to Opal’s POV, she thought that this adventure would be neat and simple, but it instead was chaos and a complete mess, and the End city looked weird on the inside for Lisa and Braun. They eventually make it to the bridge just before the end ship despite getting hit by shulker bullets, and once they get to the end ship, they are attacked by more shulkers. Eventually, the three kill off the remaining shulkers and grab the elytra and the shulker shells, with Lisa and Braun panicking after levitating off the ground and falling to the ship with a thud, damaging the elytra in the process. Opal then warns Braun to try not to fall again.
Chapter 12: Lisa
Switching to Lisa’s POV, she says that she could feel how angry Opal was upon their return to the Overworld just as the sun rose over the horizon. Braun then catches up to Lisa on his horse, thinking her for saving him, and she in turn thanks him for going to the Nether portal with her. Lisa adds that these past few days have been the coolest days of her life before she notices Opal glancing back at them, causing her to look away. Opal then calls out Lisa and tells her and Braun to stop. They do, and Opal apologizes to Lisa for the whole adventure they were on, and Lisa wonders if she is mad at her. Opal says that she isn’t and insists to Lisa that she was really good back in the End for using the elytra and saving Braun. Opal adds that she was wrong to Lisa about her not being reader for going on an adventure, and she apologizes to her once again for holding her back. Lisa then says that she thought Opal was angry at her for damaging the elytra, and Opal says that she isn’t, knowing that it can be repaired. She then shifts her focus to Braun about his story of being an adventurer, adding that something’s been bugging about her with his story about tracking the piglins, just as three creepers explode by them.
Chapter 13: Opal
Switching to Opal’s POV, she talks to the reader about how creepers don’t usually bother her, but she was too focused on talking with Lisa about why they shouldn’t go to the ancient city as in her opinion, Lisa was good but not experienced, and Braun was loud and clumsy. Back to reality, Opal is dazed by the explosion of the three creepers that she wonders if the explosions would activate sculk shriekers, and Lisa frowns sharply, saying to her that there are no sculk shriekers here. Opal takes a couple of deep breaths before saying that she is okay to get home, but Lisa believes that she isn’t. Opal then snaps at Braun for not warning them about the creepers, and he sheepishly apologizes for not seeing the creepers in time. Opal then questions Braun about saving her, also saying to Lisa that he has been lying to her the entire time, adding that because of his lying is why they can’t go to the ancient city, leaving Lisa feel crushed. Braun then says that he doesn’t know what Opal means, and she says to Lisa that he is a fake, believing that his first time in the Nether was hours before he met them, and sternly asks Braun to tell Lisa how the zombified piglins really showed up. After some hesitation, Braun takes a deep breath and begins to speak.
Chapter 14: Braun
Switching to Braun’s POV, he says that he wasn’t running from the piglins, and only realized some time later that he exited through the same portal that he had entered, adding that he had no reason to be near the village that Opal and Lisa were at. Opal then interjects about the diamond and iron armor he was wearing, noting he wasn’t wearing any gold, and Lisa explains about how gold attracts piglins by giving them gold, and piglins ignore ones who wear gold. Braun concurs, saying that he went in with exactly what he was wearing, noting that he knew about piglins before going in the Nether by reading books, but felt like they didn’t matter anymore once he went in, as he was running from the piglins early on during his time in the Nether due to him not realizing that there were many more than he had believed. Braun continues, stating that he ran until he made it through the portal, repairing his backpack on the edge of the village when the piglins started entering the Overworld, transforming into zombified versions of themselves, so he went into the village without hesitation because he was scared that he wouldn’t talk to Opal if he told her the truth, which was that he sucked at everything. Lisa, with tears in her eyes, fights them off and checks on the horses, as Braun feels awful for what he said.